Automotive vehicles usually have doors which are installed in automotive body openings having rocker panels defining bottoms of the openings. It is current practice to provide rockers with holes which receive fasteners from carpets or other surface components which extend into the interior of automotive cabins.
It is also current practice to fill spaces behind rockers with dense foam or wax in order to strengthen the framing of automotive vehicles, however the foam interferes with fasteners inserted through the holes making it necessary to plug the holes prior to foaming and to unplug the holes after foaming. Plugging and unplugging the holes is labor intensive, while the necessity of disposing of removed plugs adds material cost.
Accordingly, there is a need to provide alternative arrangements for attaching automotive surface components, such as carpets and trim to rocker panels, as well as to other framing components, such as for example cabin pillars. While attaching automotive components is a concern where there is material such as foam or wax behind a panel, there are other structures in other vehicles, such as boats, trains and aircraft, and in other industries, such as construction and appliance manufacturing, where materials of any type disposed behind panels might interfere with the mounting of fasteners.